Friday, May 28, 2010

Dumbo Part 5

After the emotional confrontation over Dumbo's ears in the last sequence, the film takes things down a notch by following Casey Jr. as he pulls into town. There's an explicit quote from The Little Engine that Could here.

What follows is one of the most interesting sequences in Disney history, and one thing that makes it interesting is how little discussion it has provoked. While the crows later in the film have been the subject of much debate, the racial overtones of this sequence seem to have escaped notice.

Why is this sequence in the film at all? What follows it is a circle wipe to the circus parading down main street. That could easily have followed Casey Jr. pulling into town. There's a bit of humor in this sequence with Dumbo trying and failing to do the work of the older elephants, but the gags are generic, doing nothing to give us a better idea of who Dumbo is as an individual. This sequence seems to be here to make a comment on race and class. That's relatively unusual for a Disney film (though it does pop up in shorts like Who Killed Cock Robin?). This is the first Disney feature to be set in contemporary times, so this sequence is a reflection of what was on the artists' minds.

The only humans we've seen previously are in sequence 3. They are all white and wearing uniforms that clearly mark them as circus employees. When we get to this sequence, the only humans we see are black. As they are disembarking from a railroad car, we know that they are also employees, but they don't get uniforms. The roustabouts are the ones who do the heavy lifting, regardless of the weather. Why aren't the rest of the employees helping? I guess the work is beneath them. Let's not forget that the circus wintered in Florida, at the time a Jim Crow state.

Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike! Ugh! Hike!We don't know when we get our payAnd when we do, we throw our pay away(When we get our pay, we throw our money all away)We get our pay when children sayWith happy hearts, "It's circus day today"(Then we get our pay, just watching kids on circus day)

Swing that sledge! Sing that song!Work and laugh the whole night longYou happy-hearted roustabouts!Pullin', poundin', tryin', groundin'Big top roundin' into shapeKeep on working!Stop that shirking!Grab that rope, you hairy ape!Poundin'! poundin'! poundin'! poundin'!Oh...

Note the use of the word "slave." Note also that they are illiterate and aren't paid on a regular basis. Happy-hearted? The visuals and the rest of the lyrics seem to dispute that. The song is nothing less than an extension of work songs sung in the fields by black slaves to dull the strain and boredom of work. Once this sequence is over, the roustabouts vanish from the film.

There's also an explicit parallel drawn between the elephants and the black workers. Except for one shot with camels, it appears that the elephants are the only circus animals helping to set up the big top. Shots 25 and 26 explicitly show the tigers lounging in their cage while the elephants exert themselves.

While the film is ostensibly about Dumbo, a freak who is persecuted, this sequence makes it clear that Dumbo is just an extreme case of an ongoing problem. Everyone in this film is judged on the basis of appearance, not as an individual.

One of the most interesting things to me about the early Disney features is how dangerous the environments are for the characters. We're living in a time now when entertainment is routinely made bland to protect children from upset. In 1940, the audience had weathered the greatest economic reversal in memory and was warily following a European war. The audience didn't have to be reminded that life was hard, dangerous and unfair.

Animation-wise, shot 22 by Hugh Fraser has Dumbo descending from the railroad car on a vibrating gangplank. The animation doesn't really work as Dumbo comes off as weightless. I'm sure that a higher budget would have caused the scene to be revised.

Jack Campbell's work on the roustabouts is excellent. Despite the fact that they have no faces, they do have a real presence. You can feel their exertion.

Steve Bosustow, later the head of UPA, has several shots of elephants here.

The effects animation in this sequence is excellent. The rain is well done and Disney always makes it a point to show the drops hitting surfaces. Cheaper animation generally just overlays the rain on the scene without showing the drops making contact with anything. The use of rim lighting on the elephants and the roustabouts is beautiful and the use of aerial perspective on shots like 57 and 57.1 adds a tremendous sense of depth.

9 comments:

I think it's a beautiful sequence. I think it's once of those scenes that gives you a sense of the environment that the characters live in. I live the roustabouts design and animation. It has a very impressionistic/expressionistic feeling to me. Jack Campbell certainly was a talented animator. I also love the effects shots here. Also, the colors are powerful. They're not bright, primary colors, but simple, more muted colors, but they make a bold statement. Wonderful post.

Wow, a wonderful piece of animation, and I've always thought what did Jack Campbell (before the draft was posted I thought he did the animals!), and the roustabouts are really well-drawn Jack certainly has talent!

One of my two favourite sequences in the film (the other being "Fireman Save My Child" Sequence 14)

I just love the scenes with Casey Junior going up the hill saying, "I think I can, I think I can!", I just love the music to Casey Junior, it has to be (in my opinion) one of the best train songs.

Oh (I forgot to mention) Zartok, I'm just the same with you, I really do like shot 1 very much as well, I love the music to when Casey in silhouette goes through a tunnel and back again! Just beautiful, and Paul Kossoff did the Casey in silhouette and Don Patterson did the Casey Junior coming out of the tunnel (BEAUTIFUL MUSIC), Oh by the way, don't you notice that in the film when Don Patterson animates Casey in Shot 1, that he is shaking his head in rhythm.

I love the lyrics to the Casey film, (My favourite Dumbo song, wish it was longer!) I love the first part of the lyrics:

"Casey Jr's comin' down the track,Comin' down the track with a smokey's stack!"

In "The Reluctant Dragon" there was a Casey Junior sequence (about 5 mintues long), and I think that it was supposed to be a longer sequence in Dumbo, but it got removed, and Casey in that version didn't look like the final match)

As I mentioned on Hans' blog, it seems Don Patterson did the shots of Casey Jr as a character, while Don Tobin and Paul Kossoff did the shots of Casey Jr as an inanimate vehicle. (a possible exception being Tobin animating scene 12)

Note that on the draft, the white, better dressed circus workers in the "Casey loading" and "Menagerie" sequences are also described as roustabouts, and there are a couple of shots by Jack Campbell.

I agree that the "Happy hearted" sounds strange. Almost as if the song was originally meant to be a cheerful, "whistle while you work" type song, and the line is a holdover from before they decided to turn it into a slave song.

Also, something I only really noticed when watching the film with the draft is how rarely the roustabouts actually appear on screen. Because they're singing throughout, I don't think the audience really notices.

Maybe I'm a bit naive, but I think that happiness can be found nearly anywhere, and while I'd be the first to admit I wouldn't sign up for the life they were mostly forced to live, it's possible that many make do with the hand their given, and it's likely they came to terms with their situation in a healthier way than we would like to admit.

Hm...I'm not sure I'm with you on the subject of roustabouts. When I first watched this with my kids I was shocked to find that the black workers were faceless and their song berates them. Compared to the clowns and the circus director, the roustabouts seemed to me to be treated as subhuman - and the crows are a caricature of blacks. The racism was typical for the time and is palpable. I still enjoy the movie, but do so because of Dumbo's triumph, and in spite of the background of racism.

About Me

I've worked as an animator, writer, producer and director in TV animation for 29 years. I created the cgi series Monster By Mistake.
I hold a Masters degree from York University in Cinema and Media Studies and am currently teaching animation at Sheridan College.
I can be contacted at mark(dot)mayerson(at)sheridancollege(dot)ca.